Administrator role guide for Project Web Access

This article describes the activities that are available to you when you have administrative permissions over Microsoft Office Project Web Access. It presents a broad overview of Project Web Access from the perspective of an administrator.

Note: This guide does not include information about how to deploy Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 across your organization. You can learn how to deploy and manage Project Server 2007 on TechNet.

Depending on the security group to which they are assigned, users can work with Project Web Access features by using Project Web Access, Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007, or both.

Note: If you don't see the Server Settings link in the Quick Launch of Project Web Access, then you don't belong to the administrators group and you cannot perform actions such as customizing views, setting up reports, setting up timesheets, or deleting projects.

Work from the Project Web Access home page

The Project Web Access home page is the primary entry point for users who work with data saved to the Project Server 2007 database. When you log on to Project Web Access, pending items that might require action (such as task updates that must be approved) and items that have changed since the last time that you logged on are displayed. From the home page, you can access Project Web Access features, including the Tasks, Project Center, Resource Center, Updates, Status Reports, Documents, Issues, and Risks pages.

Note: The content that appears on the Project Web Access home page is determined by the features that are available on the server, the role of the user, the permissions that are assigned to the user, the security categories to which the user belongs (including the projects and views assigned to that security category), and any customizations that were configured for the home page.

Work with tasks and timesheets

Before team members can record timesheet hours or their task status, the administrator must set up timesheets, task status, or both. Timesheets record the actual hours worked on tasks, projects, and other items, and are important if you track utilization, billable time, and other time-based metrics. Team members can enter the task status by using their My Tasks pages, which enables the administrator to track the status or progress toward the completion of tasks in projects.

If your organization has project managers and they will track progress for the projects they created in Office Project Professional 2007, you will want to track the task status.

Manage tasks

Team members can use the My Tasks page in Project Web Access to view, edit, delegate, and update tasks and working times that are assigned to them by a project manager who is using Project Professional 2007. To access the My Tasks page, click My Tasks on the Quick Launch.

Manage task updates

On the Task Updates page in Project Web Access, you can review changes to tasks and working times that team members submit from their My Tasks pages. You can also use the Task Updates page to update projects with the latest information.

You can update projects with information from the Task Updates page in two ways:

Manually You can accept each task change by clicking Accept on the Task Updates page. If you reply to a task change request before accepting it, the change request is removed from the list on the Task Updates page until the team member replies. You can update and reply to new task and task delegation requests at the same time.

Automatically (by using rules) You can create and run rules to automatically update projects with changes that do not must be reviewed before approval. You can create rules that run for specific projects, for all projects, for specific resources, or for groups of resources at a specific location in the Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) of your organization.

Integrate with Outlook

Project Web Access integrates with Microsoft Outlook to enable team members to update their tasks by using Office Outlook 2007, 2003, or XP. In order to use any Outlook integration features, team members must:

Have a valid user account for Project Web Access to access the page from which the Outlook integration features are configured.

Work with resources

Project managers and resource managers use the Resource Center in Project Web Access to view, modify, and analyze information for one or more resources who are assigned to tasks in projects that are published to the Project Server database. The Resource Center displays a list of the resources in the enterprise resource pool; permission to view items in the Resource Center are granted by the Project Server administrator.

Manage resource information

In the Resource Center, you can edit information about resources, such as their e-mail addresses, account information, and groups to which they belong. You can also view their assignments and availability.

Some resource attributes, such as their calendar settings, can only be changed with Project Professional 2007.

Staff projects

Project managers can build teams for projects based on many different parameters, including resource skills and resource availability. You can use the Build Team feature in Project Web Access to build a project team.

Consider the following when you use the Build Team feature:

Managers might not be able to see all resources, or they might not be able to assign all of them to projects.

In order to find resources that have the necessary skill sets, your organization must apply Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) codes and other enterprise resource outline codes that are used to define various skills and resource relationships in the organization.

You can assign tasks to a team of resources; individual team members can then select those tasks that they want assigned to themselves.

Managers can use both proposed and committed booking types for resources. By assigning resources to projects without committing them, managers can track potential resource assignments for proposed new projects. Service organizations, for example, often use proposed booking so that they can compare various assignment scenarios and manage both proposed and approved assignments. Resource managers in organizations that use a centralized resource pool and project managers who do their own staffing use proposed booking to track and manage staffing requests.

Some resource attributes and settings, such as calendar settings and substituted resources, can only be changed by using Project Professional 2007.

Skill scheduling

To find the best resource for the job, use the skill scheduling features that are available in Project Web Access and Project Professional 2007 as part of your organization's Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution. Use the Resource Substitution Wizard within Project Professional 2007 to replace generic resources with actual resources. Use the Build Team feature in Project Web Access to build find resources with the correct skills for the job.

Some resource attributes, such as calendar settings and the Resource Substitution Wizard, can only be changed with Project Professional 2007.

Skill scheduling activities

Work with vacation and other nonworking time (administrative time)

Project Web Access enables you to track nonworking time (administrative time), such as vacations, team meetings, training, internal projects, and other nonproject time. Team members enter administrative time on their My Timesheets pages.

Your organization should track administrative time if:

You are integrating with an accounting system that requires data on exceptions.

Your management team wants to see reports on exceptions.

Project managers or resource managers want team members to enter out-of-office time so that the time appears as unavailable for project assignments.

Administrative time management activities

Work in the Project Center

The Project Center provides a convenient way for project managers, team members, and other project stakeholders to view detailed information about individual projects and to view summary information about projects across the organization. Any user who has permission to access the Project Center in Project Web Access or Project Professional 2007 can use the Project Center to work with any project to which they are assigned. Only projects that are published to the Project Server 2007 database are available in the Project Center.

Analyze data and create reports

Project Web Access provides many reporting options to help your team collaborate efficiently. Team members can create status reports to report how their tasks are progressing. In addition, a project manager can create detailed online analytical processing (OLAP) reports.

Some tasks can only be performed by users who belong to the Project Web Access administrators group. If you don't see the Server Settings link in the Quick Launch of Project Web Access, then you don't belong to the administrators group, and cannot perform actions such as customizing views, setting up reports, setting up timesheets, or deleting projects.

Manage status reports

Status reports describe the progress on assigned tasks. Project managers can automate the process of requesting and receiving status information; they can send team members status report requests, and team members can then respond to them by providing the information requested. Team members can also initiate the submission of status reports. Project managers can configure status reports so that they receive individual submissions and a merged report that consolidates responses.

Status report management activities

Work with OLAP reports

Managers at various levels can use a variety of reports to analyze project and resource performance in a project or across multiple projects. You can use PivotTable and PivotChart views if you want to work interactively with the reports and change some of the fields that structure them. All these reports help you understand the health of your organization as measured by project and resource performance.

Some reports, such as visual reports, can only be created and viewed using Project Professional 2007.

Manage views

Views are live, interactive reports of project and resource information that is stored in the Project Server 2007 database. Views enable project team members to see information other than their own tasks, assignments, and projects. Views can also enable project and resource managers to communicate critical information about their projects to other individuals and groups in the organization. For example, some views enable team members to see information about their projects only. Other views enable project and resource managers to keep track of tasks in their projects, determine resource availability, and match the needs of their projects to the skills of available resources.

Note: Project Web Access users must have specific permissions in order to change pages. For example, in order for a user to be able to add lists, such as surveys and photo galleries, a Project Web Access administrator must set the Contribute to Project Web Access permission for that user.